The What to Expect & When to Seek Help: Bright Futures Developmental Tools for Families and Providers supports the following principle:

Every child and adolescent deserves to experience joy, have high self-esteem, have friends, acquire a sense of efficacy, and believe that she can succeed in life.

–Bright Futures Children's Health Center

Based on Bright Futures in Practice: Mental Health, the four developmental tools offer a framework for providers and families to begin a conversation together about how best to support healthy social and emotional development in children and teens. The tools gently encourage families who have any questions or concerns about their child's development to "check it out" – and offer a number of tips for when, where, and how to seek help through local, State, or national resources.

Written in family-friendly language, the tools may be used by families and child development professionals in a range of disciplines, including health, education, child care, and family services. The companion Referral Tool and the guide to Locating Community-Based Services to Support Children and Families are tailored to help providers and families connect with the specific resources they need.

Single copies of the tools are available to download (see below): for permission to reproduce tools in quantity, see Permission Form and Copyright Information below.

About the Tools

About
the Developmental Tools

Throughout
the tools, a strong emphasis is placed on strengths
as well as concerns. The information under "What
to Expect" not only offers a guide to healthy
development and parenting, but provides information
that parents can find reassuring about their child's
behavior and their own parenting.

The
tools provide an opportunity to identify concerns
at an early stage. The information under "When
to Seek Help" includes concerns that might
be addressed with additional information, as well
as concerns that signal the need for further assessments
and services.

About
the Referral Tool

Every
community has resources that can help support the
well-being of children and families, from informal
parent support groups to developmental assessment
and treatment services for children who may have
behavioral concerns or special education needs.
However, locating those services, or even knowing
what services to look for, is often difficult for
families.

This
tool is designed to help service providers guide
families to available resources by identifying
a roster of education, mental health, family support,
child care, and other services that can address
identified needs or concerns. When completed by
providers with the aid of "Locating Community-Based
Services to Support Children and Families" (see
below), the Referral Tool provides a customized
directory of community-based resources.

Using the Tools

These
tools can be used by parents and a variety of professionals,
including:

Parents

Primary
care providers

Nurses
and nurse practitioners

Child
care providers

Teachers

School
guidance counselors

Home
visitors

Substance
abuse case workers

Foster
parent case managers

Parent
educators

Other
child and family service providers

The
tools have been designed to be used in a variety
of settings for multiple purposes:

Companion Knowledge Path

Locating
Community-Based Services to Support Children and
Families

About
the Knowledge Path

Developed
by the MCH Library in collaboration with the National
Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental
Health, this guide provides an electronic pathway
to locating local, state, and national resources
on the Web. Contact information identified for
resources in a broad range of service sectors --
Education/Special Needs; Mental Health; Family
Support; Parent Education; Child Care/Early Education;
Health and Wellness; and Financial Support -- can
then be written into the Referral Tool and shared
with families

Tools
in Spanish

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Training and Technical Assistance

Customized
training, consultation, and technical assistance is
available from Bright Futures at Georgetown University
and the National Technical Assistance Center for
Children's Mental Health to utilize these tools
in a variety of settings and for multiple purposes.
Please contact Rochelle Mayer, Ed.D, for more information.

Copyright and Citations

Copyright

Report
information about dissemination
and implementation to our funders and
partners

Monitor
interest and
relevance of the tools

Provide
assistance and guidance to
professionals who implement the tools
in substantial initiatives

Modify
the tools based
on user input

What
to Expect & When to Seek Help: Bright Futures
Tools to Promote Social and Emotional Development are
copyrighted by the Georgetown University Center
for Child and Human Development and are protected
by Georgetown University's copyright
policies. However, we encourage you to download
them for the following uses:

Permission
is granted to download single copy publications for use
in your work.

Please
download and fill out the Permission
Form (see link above) to use these tools in trainings or
for broad distribution.

Citations

Suggested
citations for the What to Expect & When
to Seek Help: Bright Futures Developmental Tools
for Families and Providers are provided in
this pop-up window.

Funding / Acknowledgements / Feedback

Funding

Developed
with funding from Child, Adolescent and Family Branch
Center for Mental Health Services
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Acknowledgements

The
authors gratefully acknowledge the significant contributions
to this project by many dedicated professionals. Special
thanks go to the following: